There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.

Regardless of how you choose to “build your list” there are certain techniques that are essential to driving response rates, and results. As many people shift from traditional email list systems to the social sphere, email is still the most trusted form of online communication (next to the website itself).. but many people feel their email series isn’t engaging their members like social does, however the same principles actually apply to both and have been bringing high engagement rates across various types of media.

Create a Habit

The #1 tool for engagement is creating a behavior pattern. Maintain consistency in the type and frequency of content so your audience can know when to look for your email, blog post, or social media posts. Make sure your content is generally within the realm of the originating keywords so that you are on topic with your audience. Create an expectation from your reader to seek out future & even past postings.

Be Unique

Always when sending your messages, make sure it is you. Put some of your own language, way of speaking, mannerisms, and even perspectives in to your emails. Don’t be afraid to offend because speaking the language of your supporters creates stronger loyalty and respect than you had of the ones who may be offended. Your audience has learned to ignore bots and form letters and are worth the time of creating genuine, unique content with your own perspective. It doesn’t matter if you can’t spell correctly – people will respect that it is an obvious person doing the work.

Provide Content

The key to generating sales using your social media and email campaigns is to not sell at all. Provide real, actionable content to your audience. If you just send them sales messages they will easily learn to ignore your emails, or even unsubscribe. Providing content that they want and can use, will leave them searching and waiting for your next email. Build a level of trust, respect, and loyalty that will inspire them to seek out your products. On the rare occasions you DO try and directly sell them something, do it in a way that really shows the value of the product. Post it in a way that explains how they can use it to solve a problem that you know they face (because you know them by now, and the people who are still reading weekly are narrowed down to a focused, responsive group). Continue also to follow up with them about this product, and how they can continue to use it in future posts or emails, expanding the value of their purchase.

Create Reciprocation

Make sure you have plenty of opportunities for your audience to reach back to you, connect with you, to share their experiences and knowledge with you. Use this opportunity to create real connections with your audience, and better learn about your audience so you can create more tailored content. Often times more people are likely to respond via email than social media, unless you ask a direct question.

Leverage Yourself

I’ll leave you with this last key.. make sure you are using your resources of one list, to expand into the other. The way you use Pinterest is not the same way you’ll use Facebook, so while you are creating unique content for each platform, you may have people in your audience who found you on a site they don’t regularly use, and simply informing them so they can engage with you on their preferred platform. Take note though that these posts will often come across as sales messages so make sure to keep them few and far between.

Regardless of if you are using low cost or free advertising (like Traffic Exchanges) or an expensive CPA campaign, the way to squeezing the most results from your advertising dollars is by following up with your potential consumers.

We’re living in a time now that gives is more opportunities to connect with our customers (or potential customers) than ever before, but email remains one of the most trusted form of online communication. The benefits to building your email subscribption list are obvious to those who participate, but if you’re thinking of whether or not building a list is right for you, it can seem like a confusing and daunting task.

Advertising Multiple Products

If you are advertising multiple complimentary products than building a list is a necessity. When you advertise your product on traffic exchanges, viral mailers, or CPA advertising like Google Adwords, you are paying per click (or page view) so when your consumer views your ad, you have an opportunity there to generate a sale. However when they close the page or skip over your ad, that opportunity is now lost. Instead, if you focus on capturing them on an email list or newsletter, you are given an opportunity to generate repeat advertising. Why waste your one opportunity when you can leverage it and turn it into multiple sales opportunities? Obviously two is greater than one, so instead of just presenting your dry sales page, create an opportunity for them to join your email list this so you can continue to advertise products to them.

Repeat Visitors

If you are into blogging or have your own sales website, building an email list is the cornerstone of an effective marketing campaign. Being able to remind members, or potential members, of your product or service are essential to bringing them back. In some cases your potential customer may have been greatly interested in your product, but be browsing on their cell phone or have to run to make it to an appointment and don’t have the time right now to complete the registration process. By using an email list you can remind your customers of your product and service and drive repeat visitors to your sales opportunity, or bring them back to your next blog post.

Follow Up

Any experienced sales person will tell you that follow up is crucial to generating sales. Studies have shown that only 2% of sales are generated on the first contact, simply being able to follow up with your customer will generate a massive increase in opportunity for sales. By allowing your potential customer to share their email address with you, you have an opportunity to contact them a second, third, fourth (etc) time and follow up with your potential customers to generate sales.

Build Trust

In the last point we mentioned that only 2% of sales are generated on the first contact, this means that 98% of all customers will not purchase until a certain level of trust has been developed. Being able to have them subscribe to your email list or newsletter creates an opportunity for you to provide value and build trust, to create a line of communication with your potential customer. You can leverage this contact opportunity to build trust and confidence with your product which will help drive sales with new leads.

The internet is a very noisy place, and it can be extremely difficult to share your message in a noisy social world. As a marketing an advertising expert I see tons of opportunities lost every day in advertising by people not creating an opportunity to follow up and build trust with their potential consumers. A simple list building strategy can be used to maximize sales right now and start turning leads into customers, and new visits into repeat traffic.